Today, it was 25*F and I ran out of windshield washer fluid. Knowing that the hood was frozen, I asked my good ol mom to pull the handle while I tugged on the hood to free it (I figured she had the safer, easier job). So she crawls into the driver's seat and pulls the handle.
The cold, combined with her pulling up, instead of out...the handle pops off. AWESOME!
As strange as it sounds, I actually had a spare hood cable in my room for the solenoid/latch popper plan (wierd).
I spent the entire mid-day removing and rerouting a hood cable.
Let me tell those of you who have not done this....its no walk in the park.
By no means is it difficult or hard...its just a giant pain in the ass.
I also degreased the latch in brake cleaner and relubed it w/ oil, liquid wrench, wd40, and some urea grease (all I had). I never thought about the latch being that shiny under the grime.
(Did you know that if you put a bunch of brake cleaner in a THIN plastic bin, it will melt it and fuse plastic to the floor? I learned that today. Common sense if you think about it though
)
So just in case any of you happen to get luck as bad as mine and break your handle, know that the job kinda sucks. FYI for all